252 ACROSS AFRICA. [Chap. 



July, enjoyed themselves immensely, shrieking, screaming, and laugh- 



1874. jng tj^g whole while. 



Leaving the banks of the Lnama, we forded an affluent — 

 the Lulwii, thirty yards in width and four feet in depth — and, 

 marching two miles farther, reached the bend of the Luama, 

 where we had arranged to cross it. Canoes were here in readi- 

 ness ; but as there were only three, the work of getting the car- 

 avan over occupied some time, for the river was fully a hundred 

 yards in width and eight to ten feet deep in the middle, and had 

 steep banks. 



While we w^ere thus engaged, at 9h. 10m. local mean time, 

 there was a slight shock of earthquake ; a low, rumbling sound 

 and a faint though distinctly percejitible tremor of the ground 

 passing from east-north-east to west-south-west. 



A large number of hippopotami were blowing in mid-stream, 

 on our reaching the river, so I occupied myself by firing at 

 them. One, getting a bullet and shell in his head in rapid suc- 

 cession, sunk, and the rest cleared out, M'hich was a very desira- 

 ble result, since they often hog up underneath a canoe in deep 

 water, and heave it right out, capsizing all the occupants. The 

 canoes bore marks of the tusks of these brutes, which look wpon 

 them as intruders, and often attack them wantonly. 



By the time the caravan had been ferried over, the sun was 

 very powerful, and it was too late to proceed farther ; so we 

 camped in a small scattered village about a mile from the river. 



Although they afterward became common, I here saw for the 

 first time large platforms, on which were stored huge birndles 

 of grass ready for thatching the huts on the approach of the 

 rainy season. The two centre -poles of the platform, which 

 were about twenty feet higher than the others, were connected 

 with a square-meshed net made of strips of bark. At each in- 

 tersection of these strips bunches of niatama and Indian corn 

 were tied, the grain by these means being stored without a pos- 

 sibility of its heating, as it sometimes does if placed in close 

 granaries before it is perfectly ripe. But, en revanche^ the birds 

 carry off immense quantities from these open-air stores. 



Our next camp was at Ivisimbika, the road to this j)lace being 

 along the right bank of the Luama, and across many dry beds 

 of water - courses with sides and bottoms formed of verv thin 



